Manly Pride
by Taliax
Summary: Terra's 'Manly Pride' causes him to make a bet that might end in horrible, girly disaster. But he might also learn a little more about his fellow keyblade apprentice along the way.


**A/N: My entry for the Role Reversal event on the dA group KHPlatonicLove.**

 **Takes place when Terra and Aqua are a little younger, before Ven shows up.**

"You don't think I can do it, do you?" Aqua asked, voice dangerously calm. As she crossed her arms, Terra wondered if he'd crossed a line.

"It's not that you _can't_ do it," he backpedaled. "It's just easier for guys. We have more arm strength; it's biology—"

One glare told him that was the wrong thing to say. He winced as her eyes filled with blue fire.

"So you _don't_ think I can do it. If you're so sure about your _biology,_ why don't we make a bet?"

Great. A direct challenge. But his pride wouldn't let him back down now. Besides, she _couldn't_ do it, right? He'd never been able to, so why should she?

"Fine. You're on."

And thatwas how Terra ended up betting Aqua that she couldn't climb the Great Oak. But of course, being a matter of guy-vs-girl pride, they had to make the stakes interesting: the loser had to wear the winner's outfit for the next day.

There were plenty of big trees in the Land of Departure, but the Great Oak was _huge._ It sprawled out above the treeline, almost tickling the clouds. Back when he was the first and only apprentice, Terra had made climbing it his personal "Mark of Mastery." He'd tried, and tried, and finally been forbidden when on his ninth attempt he'd crashed through the branches and broken his arm. That was when he was eight. Now, he was eleven, a whole three years older – and no longer alone. He finally had someone else to prove himself to.

And she was _not_ going to steal his dream from him.

"Here's the rules," Aqua announced, being the rule-lover she was. Good thing he hadn't told her the Master had forbidden him from climbing this tree anymore. "The first one to the top wins, or the person to climb the highest. No pushing, breaking branches, or making the other person fall on purpose."

Terra rolled his eyes. "Sheesh, Aqua, I'm not _that_ mean."

"Good." The girl smiled. "Are you ready?"

He positioned himself directly under the lowest, sturdiest branch, his starting point for his more successful attempts. "Ready to leave you in the dust," he taunted.

"That's what you think." She grinned slyly, like she knew something he didn't. In the few months since he'd first met Aqua, he'd learned one very important thing: she was smart. He knew he could climb better than her, but knowing her, she'd think up some clever solution…

No. He was going to win this. His eleven-year-old Manly Pride depended on it.

"Three… two… one… go!"

At Aqua's shout, Terra shoved off of the ground, leaping up and clasping his strong hands around the branch. It hardly wavered; these bottom branches were thick and sturdy, indifferent to his weight. As he heaved himself onto the limb, he risked a glance down at Aqua – but to his surprise, she wasn't there.

"Looking for something?" She called from the branch next to him.

"Wh—how did you—?"

"I don't have as much weight to pull up," she explained as she braced herself against the trunk, quickly found a handhold, and pulled herself to the next branch. Terra could hardly keep his jaw from dropping. She moved like an acrobat, using thin limbs and tiny footholds he never would have considered. Climbing like that, gracefully weaving through the branches… she was like a force of nature, flowing like her namesake element.

He had to remind himself that he wasn't here for a show. Shaking his head, he pressed forward with more determination than ever before. In the past, his only standard was his own record. Now, he had a rival. And a surprisingly worthy rival at that.

But he'd done this before. He had the advantage of knowing which branches were stable, which handholds provided the best grip, which paths would leave him stranded. What surprised him the most was how much stronger he'd grown in the past three years. Where his arms used to scream in protest, they now barely groaned as he pulled himself higher and higher.

As he reached the branch he'd fallen from on his last attempt, he tried not to look down. His fear of heights had doubled since that incident, but he couldn't let it stop him now. Today, he would finally beat the Great Oak for good.

The gap between his branch and the one above had once seemed uncrossable. Now, with the two inches he'd grown, he grasped it without needing to stand on his tiptoes – how he'd fallen the first time.

Grinning in victory, he looked up. The treeline was within reach now – as was Aqua, only a few branches ahead. She met his glance and continued faster.

"Not so cocky now, huh?" Terra chuckled to himself. His muscles were burning by now, but his desire for victory spurred him onwards and upwards.

Breaking the treeline felt like emerging into a different world. A green carpet of treetops spread out in every direction, with the castle reigning above it all from the mountain that rose out of the forest. It would have been amazing, if it didn't make his stomach do barrel rolls.

"Wow," Aqua whispered from the branch directly opposite his, nearly startling him out of the tree.  
"This view… I've never seen anything like it."

"Me either," Terra agreed, trying not to let his fear of heights show.

"Really?" She raised her eyebrows. "I thought you said you got all the way to the top before."

Oh yeah… he had said that.

"Um…" He clung to the tree as he tried to come up with a response. "It was too cloudy that day. I couldn't see much."

"Uh-huh." She clearly didn't believe him. But to his relief, she didn't challenge him further, just started scaling the tree again. "Well, I bet the view's evenbetter from the top. You can meet me there!"

"Not if I get there first!" He called back.

This short reprieve hadn't done much for his aching muscles, but he gritted his teeth and climbed on. Did Aqua ever get this exhausted? She seemed to be climbing as fast as ever, even as the branches started to narrow, thin out…

The branches were thinning for Terra too, and she'd been right. He wasn't as light as she was.

"Come on…" He muttered to a limb that couldn't have been any thicker than his wrist. Thankfully, it bore his weight if he stayed pressed against the trunk, but he wasn't sure the next, even thinner branch would…

A sharp _crack_ pierced his ears. He looked down, thinking he was about to go plummeting to his doom, but his branch was perfectly fine.

" _Terra_!" Aqua cried out several feet above him, and it suddenly made sense. Unlike Terra, she didn't know it was safer to stay near the trunk. She must have spread her feet apart, trying to brace herself, and instead cracked the thin branch. "Terra, what do I do!?"

"Hang on, Aqua!" Thankfully, she'd grabbed the branch above her before the one below gave out, but it was curling, bending dangerously. It might hold out for ten minutes, or ten seconds.

"Now's not the time for puns!" She yelled at him. "How do I get down!?"

Terra's heart raced with panic. He'd never been this high. He'd broken his arm when he fell from _below_ the treeline. If she dropped from up here, nearly in the clouds… he couldn't imagine her surviving it.

So he couldn't let her fall. But he couldn't get to her – he'd only break more branches if he tried. She would have to get down herself.

"Can you scoot over to the trunk?" He asked.

"I'll try…" But as soon as she shifted her hand, the branch let out a threatening _creeeak._ She frantically shook her head. "I can't! It's going to break!"

Terra's blood ran cold. He should have listened to the Master… he never should have taken her here… But the Master was gone, off on some business with Master Yen Sid. Even if Terra wasn't terrified of telling him, he could never get here in time. No, Terra had made this mess, and it was his responsibility to get them out of it.

"I'm not the smart one, Aqua…" he admitted under his breath. _She_ was supposed to be the smart one, but she must be terrified, way too terrified to think her way out of this.

"I- I have an idea," he said weakly.

"You do?" Her voice was full of hope. Good. His idea needed a lot of that.

"I think… you have to let go."

" _What!?"_ She yelled, as loud as if she were right next to him. It was a miracle the sound alone didn't crack the branch. "Are you crazy!?"

"Trust me!" He called back. "I'm going to catch you!"

"How do you plan to do that?" She asked, voice still shaking with fear.

"With my manly muscles." He flexed with one arm, grinning to try to reassure her. He couldn't tell if it worked, but she laughed with a tinge of hysteria.

"I guess I don't have much choice." She gulped. He shimmied around the trunk, stepping down a branch to position himself directly beneath her.

"It's going to be okay, Aqua." He tried to calm both her and himself. He had once shot at this. One shot to save his fellow apprentice's life.

He anchored himself to the trunk with one arm, holding out his other. "…I'm ready."

She clenched her eyes shut. "I don't think I am…"

"You can trust me," he coaxed her. The branch bent farther; she couldn't have much time. "I'm going to catch you. I promise."

She took a deep breath. "…Okay."

"One the count of three. One… two… three!"

She let go. Dropped. Faster than Terra expected, even with the thin branches snapping in her wake. In that moment, cold, sharp fear stabbed him in the heart: he wasn't going to be fast enough. She was going to fall to her death, all because he was stupid enough to think he could catch her—

But as she blurred by, his arm reflexively curled around her middle. He'd caught her—

Only for her momentum to weigh him down, crack the branch beneath them, send them crashing down, down, down…

To his eternal shame, his scream had to be twenty times girlier than hers. It was only muffled by the rushing of leaves as they crashed through layers of canopy, clinging to each other for dear life.

It could only have been half a second, though to Terra it felt like a lifetime, before Aqua's scream gave way to a comprehensible word.

" _AEROGA!"_

The sudden, violent blast of wind nearly blew Terra away from her. As he struggled to cling to her, the wind cleared a path through the remaining branches and cushioned their impact on the solid ground. Not that it stopped it from hurting. In fact, he had twisted to be on the bottom, breaking Aqua's fall, and he was sure he'd broken at least two ribs along with it.

But they were alive. Even though his skin was blotched with cuts and bruises, as he stretched out on the ground a hysterical laugh bubbled out of him.

"Aqua! We didn't die!"

She rolled off of him, laughing too, though more in relief than hysteria. "Yes. We didn't."

"Man, that was the scariest thing ever."

"Definitely." She exhaled heavily.

"Hey, Aqua?"

"Yes?"

"Can you please cast Curaga on me before I start screaming again?"

She quickly performed the spell, letting him relax in relief. He may be stronger physically, but Aqua had picked up spells that had taken him years in no time flat. Her Curaga felt like drinking ambrosia.

"Thanks." He smiled, content to lay there on the ground, letting his cuts seal and bruises fade. With the Master gone overnight on his business, at least he didn't have to worry about getting in trouble for coming home late.

"So," she rolled over to face him, "that was the best your 'manly muscles' could do, huh?"

"Hey, my muscles did great!" He countered. "It was the branch that couldn't handle both of us."

She let out something between a laugh and a sigh. "Well, we're alive, and I don't think we broke anything the Curaga didn't fix. That's the most important thing."

"Yeah," he agreed.

She found the strength to flash a teasing grin. "You want to know what the second mort important thing is?"

"What?" He asked curiously.

"You have to wear my clothes tomorrow."

XXX

Terra's manly pride was a powerful force, but his bet-keeping honor finally overpowered it. He squeezed into the outfit Aqua had laid out for him the night before. She must have done some sort of magic on it, though, because by some miracle it actually fit.

"Ugh…" How did she get these sleeves on? Were they upside down? And were her shorts always so _tight?_ He tried to tie that weird skirt-thing so it covered as much as possible. After fastening the pink straps around his chest, he decided this was the best he was going to get. He sure wasn't about to go check himself in the mirror.

The saving grace was that the Master wasn't supposed to come home until that night. That gave him all day to come up with some sort of explanation that didn't include him losing a bet that he was never supposed to make in the first place.

While he could dodge the Master for now, he unfortunately couldn't dodge Aqua. She was already waiting outside the door for him when he emerged from hi s room.

"Good morning, Terra." She smiled brightly, but managed not to laugh at him. He stared in surprise, and not just because she hadn't taken the opportunity to make fun of him.

She was wearing his clothes. Hakama, grey shirt, crossed red suspenders, everything except for his armored shoulder piece.

"How do I look?" She took the opportunity to twirl for him, making the pants flare out like a skirt.

"Uh… Aqua, you know you _won_ , right?" She'd climbed the highest. Even though she'd gotten stuck, according the terms of the bet, she was the victor.

"I know." She smiled. "But you helped save my life. That makes you a winner to me, too."

When he saw her sincere smile, her true gratitude, he suddenly didn't care that he was wearing girl clothes. He didn't care how ridiculous he looked, or how much those tight shorts gave him a wedgie. It was a funny way of showing how much she cared, but to Terra it made perfect sense.

For the first time since Aqua had arrived at the castle as Master Eraqus's second apprentice, Terra felt a spark of true friendship towards her. Not rivalry, not comradeship, but real friendship.

"You saved me, too," he replied. "When did you learn that 'Aeroga' spell?"

"I actually didn't," she admitted. "I know Aero, and I know adding – _ga_ makes a spell more powerful. It was risky, but I had to do something."

"I'm glad you did. I broke my arm last time I fell out of that tree, and yesterday we were way higher than that. If you hadn't done that spell—"

"I don't want to think about it," she interrupted solemnly, staring at the marble floor. "It was my fault, you know. I never should have said I could do it." She sighed. "I guess I just felt like I needed to prove myself."

"Why?" Terra blinked. He'd only thought Aqua had wanted to prove a point about girls being as good as guys. Was she saying it was more about personal pride for her too?

"Because," she said like it was obvious, "you're so strong, and you've been a keyblade apprentice so much longer than me, and you're always so confident…" Pink blush tinged her cheeks. "I wanted to be like you."

He couldn't help it. He actually laughed out loud. " _You_ wanted to be like _me?_ Seriously?"

"Don't laugh," she pouted, crossing her arms.

"No, I mean – _you're_ the smart one. I never could've cast that spell – sheesh, I never would've thought about it in the first place." He smiled. "I may have the manly muscles, but there's a lot more than that to being a keyblade apprentice. You're doing great, Aqua."

Her gaze flitted up. "…You think so?"

He didn't understand how she could doubt it. "Way better than when I first started, that's for sure." He rubbed his hair sheepishly.

She laughed a little. "I'm sure you were great too, Terra."

"…Sure," he mumbled, unsure of how to take the compliment. As he fiddled with the cloth tied around his waist, Aqua giggled.

"So, how do you like the new clothes?" She asked, looking him over.

"Gah, how do you _stand_ these things?" He waved his arms, flopping the sleeves around. "Everything's either loose and in my way, or really tight and itchy."

"Well, look at it this way," she said optimistically, "today we both get to be a little more like each other."

Her words sparked an idea in Terra's mind. "Y'know, I think there's a way we can do that without giving me a wedgie."

"Oh yeah?" She asked through a giggle. "What's that?"

"We can teach each other what we're good at," he suggested with a grin. "You can give me some magic tips—"

"And you can give me your 'manly muscles,' right?" Aqua teased, making him laugh.

"Hey, there's more to me than muscles," he fake-pouted. "I can teach you some new keyblade techniques. You haven't learned Sonic Blade yet, have you?"

"I haven't. That sounds like a great plan," she agreed, then covered her mouth to hide another laugh. "So, do you want to change back into your own clothes first?"

Terra sighed deeply in relief.

"I thought you'd never ask."

 **A/N: In my headcanon, they have multiple sets of the exact same outfit.**


End file.
